Award nomination season is coming up (or already here). A friend and fellow Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America member recommended I put together a list of everything I wrote that was published in 2020, and more than anything it felt like a great opportunity to reflect on the fun I had writing stories and creating characters over the past year.
If you follow writing and literature awards and can nominate works for consideration, I would be deeply honored and grateful if you nominated any of these. ❤️
Novel
Donn’s Legacy
90,000 words | Mystery, Horror
Mackenzie Clair is sure she’ll find answers in New Mexico. The mysteries around her mother’s past have haunted her for twenty years, and every sign points toward the truth lurking in her childhood home. But the Donn’s Hill Body Magnet should have known better than to expect a quiet trip. Everywhere Mac goes, ghosts follow.
All her life, Mac thought her mother’s death was just a tragic accident. But when a tourist dies under suspiciously similar circumstances, connections between Evelyn Clair and more recent victims start stacking up. There’s a serial killer on the prowl, and they’ve set their sights on Donn’s Hill.
Hard as she tries, Mac can’t convince the police the deaths are related. The murderer is like a ghost, moving through the living world in ways only a psychic can follow. It’s up to Mac to solve the case, but if she can’t sift through the clues from her past, she won’t live to see her future.
SHORT STORIES
“Bad Luck Bridget” (Published in Cat Ladies of the Apocalypse)
7900 words | Speculative Fiction
A story about the way crossing paths with a black cat can change your luck… and your life.
“The Thing Inside Jacky Jensen’s Garage” (Published in The Function of Freedom)
2300 words | Speculative Fiction, Horror
Leah didn’t plan on breaking into her old bully’s garage when she woke up this morning, but it’s too late to turn back now.
“No Soliciting” (Published in They Walk Among Us)
4400 words | Speculative Fiction, Horror
An elderly shut-in with a monstrous secret has her willpower tested by a persistent door-to-door salesman.
“Until Death” (Published in The NoSleep Podcast “Suddenly Shocking Volume 12”)
400 words | Horror
For some people, wedding vows are as sacred as life and death. Inspired by one of my deepest personal fears.
“The Bump” (Published in Mother Ghosts’s Grimm Volume 2)
1000 words | Speculative Fiction, Horror, Children’s Fiction
A group of eyeless children have a simple question for a tourist boy: “Want to play?” Inspired by the campfire style of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.
“Family Time” (Published in The Witching Time of Night)
4700 words | Speculative Fiction, Horror
The old grandfather clock in great-aunt Phyllis’s house put Maeve on edge the second she saw it. It’s creepy enough during the day, but at night… well, at night, it’s something else entirely.
All of these were published in 2020, and I am so incredibly proud of all the little brain babies I birthed unto the world. If you’re reading this, it 99.9% likely that you’re already one of my readers. THANK YOU so much for your support, notes, comments, emails, and other interactions with me last year. You inspire me to keep pushing forward!